NUT TREES FOR ROADSIDE PLANTING 99 
inflict penalties for raids on the product of roadside nut 
trees. If the trees are planted and owned by the tax¬ 
payers, such regulations will be the more readily enforced; 
but, even in the case of private ownership, it should not be 
difficult to afford protection which will assure the property 
owner at least a reasonable proportion of the harvest. 
The planting of nut trees is of itself comparatively 
new in this country. Until within the last ten years, 
except in the regions where commercial nut raising had 
become established, the individual’s proposal to plant trees 
for the raising of nuts was usually met by scornful com¬ 
ment. One nut tree planter, in planting an orchard of nut 
trees on his farm near Washington some years ago, found 
himself the object of critical remarks and good-natured jests 
from friends and acquaintances. The most frequent critic¬ 
ism had to do with the length of time involved in waiting for 
the young trees to reach the age of production. To one critic 
who had thus questioned the wisdom of the undertaking, 
the planter replied: “I don’t know just how long it 
will be before these trees bear, but I do know that they will 
be bearing nuts a long time before the trees you are not 
planting.” That this planter had the right idea is borne 
out by the experience of more than one man who has 
found that his roadside nut trees have proved themselves 
equal to the important task of caring for taxes and insur¬ 
ance on an entire farm—an experience not yet reported 
by those who confined their activities to criticism. 
As illustrating the not isolated experience of those 
who have planted nut trees along roadways, instead of the 
usual shade trees, an illuminating incident has recently 
come into notice from a Southern plantation. In this case 
a tenant farmer in Georgia was having difficulty in raising 
the funds for the annual payment of $600 in rent money 
and supporting a family of considerable size at the same 
